The Bridge
by mharawolenczak
Summary: Story about Lucas in honor of the anniversary of Jonathan Brandis' death.


Author's Note: Written for the 8th anniversary of Jonathan Brandis' death. We miss you, and we love you.

Lucas stood on the bridge overlooking the harbour. He was spending another shore leave alone. They'd docked at New Cape Quest allowing all the Seaquest personnel a two week shore leave with their families. They were supposed to be celebrating the end of the 'war' but Lucas wasn't feeling very celebratory. For him the war had been over for months now. Seaquest had been instrumental in regaining control over the undersea colonies, since its return they had managed to return the colonies to almost the same alliances as before Hyperion. That left Macronesia smaller than it had been in years. Without the colonies, Bourne couldn't feed the people and they slowly began to revolt. Last week he had been assassinated, and a new president was sworn in. This week Macronesia had joined the UEO.

Lucas pushed Macronesia from his mind, focusing his attention on the water. It was the only thing that seemed to bring him peace of mind these days. He didn't know why. Maybe because it reminded him of Darwin. A few weeks after Fredricks' death, Darwin had been outside the boat feeding when they were attacked by Macronesian sub fighters. Tony's sub fighter would have gone down if Darwin hadn't bumped his attacker at the last minute. They'd retaliated by shooting the dolphin. Tony refused to talk about it. He also refused to use his gills or go anywhere in the water. Lucas missed Darwin. A lot.

Darwin had been the breaking point. Lucas had turned to Captain Bridger expecting him to understand how sad he was, but instead Bridger had lashed out at him, saying it was Lucas' fault Darwin was there in the first place. Bridger blamed Lucas for Darwin's death and Lucas agreed.

After Darwin everyone seemed to give up. It was like the reality of the war that wasn't a war finally hit them. Slowly everyone gave up and left. Tony was the first. He'd been given an honourable discharge from the psychological trauma that Hyperion, and the deaths of Smith, Ortiz, Brody and Fredricks had cause and he left the ship. He'd gotten into a university and was intent on getting a degree in engineering. It was tough, but Tony wanted to help build better sub fighters. With his practical experience he knew exactly what they needed- he just didn't know how to make it. He put everything into his schooling, his dreams, determined not to let Darwin die for nothing. And then he gave up his own life- for nothing. He'd been stabbed walking home from campus by some teenage punks who'd wanted his wallet.

Having caught himself up on the political situation, as well as all the new UEO policies and military manoeuvres Commander Ford had secured himself the boat _Brandis_ as its captain. Lonnie had followed having been given the position of chief engineer. They served together for a total of five months before Lonnie left the service to marry one Captain Jonathan Ford and to raise the family they started immediately after.

Tired of being belittled by Hudson, Tim took a job at a university teaching linguistics and a few language classes. He was there one year before he met someone and got married. Lucas had been at the wedding but had left shortly after the reception started. It was mostly academics from the university and a few former Seaquest crew. Lucas was disappointed to realize that day that he no longer fit with either group.

Dagwood had been declared mentally incompetent and his enlistment was deemed invalid. He was left in the custody of another dagger by the name of Rachel. Lucas smiled as he remembered the look on Hudson's face when he'd found out who'd orchestrated that one. Lucas had been severely punished but Dagwood's happiness was worth it.

Everyone had left. They all had lives now. They were happy. He'd finally tried, after Darwin's death and his final estrangement from Bridger to reconnect with old friends. He'd found out that Juliana and Nick had gotten married a year after Seaquest disappeared. They were civil to him but the friendship was lost. Biff Pickering was a CEO with a multi-million dollar company and was too busy to return more than the first two calls that Lucas made.

Dr. Westphalen had married Downey and raised Caesar Teslov with him. They were friendly at first but Kristin put a distance between them after Caesar became too interested in the military.

Katie was an admiral now. She occasionally talked to Lucas, but it wasn't really a good idea for the admiral to fraternize with an ensign. She acted like it didn't bother her, but Lucas knew that although she was his friend, her career meant a lot to her. He didn't want to jeopardize that so he didn't push their relationship beyond the occasional phone call or letter.

Lastly there was Ben. After the incident on the iceberg Ben had returned to Macronesia to fight Bourne from the inside. And he'd won. While not part of the group who'd assassinated Bourne, he was his replacement. Yes, last week Benjamin Krieg, former Lieutenant in the UEO navy had been elected the president of Macronesia.

Lucas had thought about starting that friendship back up, but he didn't see the point. It would just end the same as the rest.

He knew his friends had good reasons to leave him. He knew that they hadn't really deserted him, that they loved him, and that he was overreacting with his feelings of abandonment and disconnection.

He knew that if he called any of them right now, if he told them what he was thinking of doing, that they would all be by his side. But he didn't. No, Lucas didn't call anyone. He didn't write anyone letters or leave anyone a note or voicemail. He knew they would try to convince him of their affection and their need for him. Lucas knew that already. He knew they cared, he knew that as low as he felt that it would get better. That his career, although at a dead-end by now would start up again if he tried. Katie would talk about finding him a better position in the UEO, Kristin would talk about the research he could help Downey with; Tim would offer to look for teaching positions. They would try to tell him things they thought would change his mind. But it wouldn't because he'd already thought about all of those. He was a genius after all.

Yes Lucas knew all the options. He knew the pain he was going to cause. He didn't care.

Lucas climbed over the railing and stood on the very edge of the bridge. He closed his eyes and counted to three.

_This is it._ He thought. On the count of three, Lucas pushed the body next to him into the water.

Smiling he climbed back over the railing. Picking up his bag of meagre belongings, he headed to the port. He saw the fishing boat _The Gregory_ and knew that they were hiring- and would leave port momentarily.

As he neared the boat, the captain stopped him and asked him what he wanted. Lucas explained his need for a job and the captain looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before asking for his ID. Smiling, Lucas handed it to him.

"21 eh? You know anything about fishing kid? Or sailing?"

"Not a clue sir."

"Ah, look at you; calling me sir already, well you'll do just fine."

Still smiling Lucas boarded the ship. Giving one last look to Cape Quest, he said good bye to Lucas Wolenczak, boy genius and went below deck.

THREE MONTHS LATER

The young blonde looked at the newspaper before him. The headline read "Body of Boy Genius Finally Found." It seemed his body had taken a trip around the coastline before burying itself in an isolated cove, only to be found some months later by some hikers. After DNA testing the body was revealed to the public as one Lucas Wolenczak, the genius who had invented the vocorder and who had gone missing some months earlier.

Oh yes. Lucas Wolenczak was a genius. He was the only man to ever clone himself. He'd been able to relate to Leslie all those years ago about faking his own death, but he was smarter than Leslie. He'd known that without a body, everyone would have kept looking for him.

He smiled to himself. The waitress came over to his table and asked if he'd like anything else.

"No thanks," he replied smiling up at her. He looked at his watch. It was time to return to _The Gregory._

Placing money on the table he turned to leave.

"Hey." He stopped to see his waitress standing close to him. "I was wondering if you'd like to grab coffee after my shift? I'm done in an hour."

"I'm sorry; my boat is leaving in twenty minutes."

The girl slumped dejectedly.

"But I'll be back in a few weeks."

She smiled and stuck out her hand. "That's great. I'm Jane. It's a date then?" She asked.

He took her hand. "You can count on it." He released her hand and turned to leave. When he was almost out the door she called after him again.

"Wait! You didn't give me you're name!"

He turned and flashed a grin at her. "Jonathan. Jonathan Brandis."


End file.
